Aug. 25 — Adults
looking back fondly on their formative school days probably reminisce
about everything but the "three R's." Memories of learning "This Land
Is Your Land" or making a museum field trip likely invoke more
nostalgia than lessons on long division.
But subjects and activities such
as art, music and extracurriculars seem to be increasingly on the
chopping block. As they head back to the classrooms in coming weeks,
kids may find their favorite part of school cut or
reduced.
The culprit, some educators and
arts advocates say, is a combination of historic fiscal crises in the
states and new federal standards stressing academic basics. Some
critics say that if school officials cut unnecessary overhead costs
they wouldn't have to touch academic programs and
activities.
But states, staring into a
combined $80 billion budget gap this year, are scrutinizing
everything — including education. Add to the mix new strict federal
standards on reading and math performance, and school administrators
say they have no choice but to give "nonessential" subjects the
squeeze.
Principal Alice Somers of
Milwaukee's Franklin Pierce School, for example, reduced gym and art
classes from five days a week to three after budget cuts that spanned
$12 million district-wide. "There is no budget cut that's easy to
make," she said.
Like other educators looking for
creative solutions, Somers has asked Milwaukee artists to volunteer
their time in classrooms.
Every state bears examples of
school program cuts, including:
In California, school arts
programs will be among tens of thousands unfunded as the state arts
council budget shrank from $17.5 million to $1 million.
In New York City, junior high
schools are cutting art, music and other electives, a move officials
say is necessary to add more classroom hours of math and
reading.
In Arizona, the Legislature cut $7
million in arts funding to schools and other groups. Districts like
Scottsdale had already reduced the number of elementary, middle
school and junior high school art and music teachers.
In Columbia, S.C., teachers cite
budget cuts and time constraints as reasons for cutting field trips
to the local zoo.
In West Bend, Wis., elementary
school orchestra was eliminated and art and physical education
reduced after $1.5 million was cut from next year's
budget.
Is Student Happiness Necessary?
To some, these cuts may seem
regrettable but necessary as school districts look hard at every
budget item. To others, slashing courses and activities children
usually enjoy undermines the very goal of education.
"These are the only things that
keep some kids in school," said Nel Noddings, a child education
professor at Stanford University and author of the recent book
Happiness and Education.
Noddings, who once taught high
school math, says she'd prefer to sacrifice math before arts, music
and even sports in school. "Kids go to school because they love arts
and music and learn other things as a result of being in school," she
said.
Critics say gutting everything but
the basics denies students a well-rounded education and jeopardizes
the nation's cultural health. Some point to a recent University of
Florida survey of 1,800 music teachers that concluded most children
are not learning children's classics, patriotic songs or folk tunes
in schools.
More ominous, a report from the
Arts Education Partnership says the arts promote skills and
motivations students need to achieve in all areas of learning,
especially in disadvantaged children.
"Kids involved in good arts
education do better for a number of reasons," said Dick Deasy,
director of the Arts Education Partnership. Arts education involves
hands-on activity, promotes well-rounded modes of learning and
engages struggling students with the learning process, Deasy
said.
Fiscal pressures facing states are
most often cited for forcing painful cuts in school budgets, but
supporters of the arts and other vulnerable activities also blame an
invigorated federal focus on reading and math.
The No Child Left Behind law
requires all students to meet standards in math and language arts by
2014 and asks schools to provide annual progress reports. Schools
that miss the mark risk sanctions.
While the law does not require
eliminating subjects, critics say it encourages administrators to
neglect everything not mentioned in the law. Still, some say that
core subjects like reading should trump sculpture classes if the
choice must be made.
"If you can't read, your prospects
in life are very low in regard to employment and education. It's the
fundamental skill," said Krista Kafer, senior education policy
analyst at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "If we
need to prioritize with money or time, reading is more important.
That doesn't mean we can't have arts or that arts can't be a part of
that."
Touch Choice or False Choice?
Not everyone agrees that schools
face choices as daunting as some administrators and critics
describe.
"School systems love to engage in
what's commonly referred to as the Washington Monument ploy," said
Chester Finn, leading education expert and senior fellow at the
Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University. "Whenever
the National Park Service is threatened with budget cuts, they say
they'll have to close the Washington Monument."
The schools' equivalent of this
ploy, Finn says, is to threaten the elimination of activities kids
enjoy, such as field trips and art classes.
In reality, Finn says, education
spending per pupil has tripled in constant dollars since 1960 — to
about $8,000 per child. If a classroom has 20 students, or $160,000,
and their teacher makes $40,000 in annual salary plus benefits, where
is the other roughly $100,000 going? Finn asks.
Instead of threatening to cut
programs and activities, Finn says, school systems should look
outside the curriculum to costs like salaries for supporting staff
including social workers, librarians, bus drivers and cafeteria
workers. Or educators could begin to re-examine time-worn ways of
operating.
"School districts take for granted
that the school day has so many hours, that the school year has so
many days in it," he said. "There are a lot of constraints when you
take that for granted. There's more of a zero-sum game and more of
one means less of something else."
But Judith Renyi, president and
CEO of the National Education Association Foundation, says pressures
from budget cuts and federal standards are all too real.
"It's a double whammy hit all at
once," she said.
Cuts in the arts, which are
especially at risk, will lead to educational harm, she says. "This
isn't icing on the cake, this is cake."